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Maryland taxes estates above $5 million, a figure fixed in statute that does not move with inflation. The District has its own estate tax with a separate threshold that is adjusted periodically. Which one applies to you depends on your domicile and on where your property sits, and for households who split time across the line, that question deserves an answer rather than an assumption.
Real property is governed by the law of the place it sits, not the place you live. A Chevy Chase resident who also owns a unit in the District can leave heirs facing two separate probate proceedings in two different courts. Titling that property into a trust generally eliminates the second one.
Documents have their own border problem. A power of attorney drafted for one jurisdiction is not always honored by a bank or a hospital in the other, and advance directive requirements differ. We draft so the paperwork functions on both sides of Western Avenue, because the emergency will not wait while someone redrafts it.
Cliff Cohen has been admitted in both Maryland and the District of Columbia for more than four decades, along with Florida, Massachusetts, and Illinois. For a plan that has to work on both sides of a state line, that dual admission is the qualification that matters, and it is not one most firms in either jurisdiction can offer.
He opened the firm in 1981 and has concentrated on estate planning, elder law, business planning, and special needs planning ever since. He earned his law degree at the University of Miami and studied business at Boston University. He serves with the Estate and Trust Section of the Montgomery County Bar Association, belongs to the Trusts and Estates Section of the D.C. Bar, and speaks to professional groups on estate planning, business succession, and long term care.
Clients describe him as someone who listens before he drafts and explains without the legalese. You will work with him directly from the first phone call through the signing.
Not automatically, but it deserves a look. Domicile drives which estate tax applies, and documents written for one jurisdiction sometimes reference statutes that do not exist in the other.
At minimum the will, the power of attorney, and the advance directive, plus the situs provisions if you have a trust. A change of domicile is one of the clearest reasons to review a plan.
No. We meet by phone and video and handle document review remotely. Most clients do come in for the signing, and the office is a short trip from anywhere in Chevy Chase.
Every three to five years, and right away after a marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, a significant change in assets, or a move across a state line.
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5335 Wisconsin Ave NW #440, Washington, DC 20015